The
missions of Columbia University are scholarship, education, and public service:
the discovery, transmission, and application of knowledge and understanding.
These activities can thrive only in an atmosphere of free expression and open
inquiry by faculty and students alike. To advance these basic missions, the
University recognizes the freedom of its faculty in discussing their subjects
in the classroom, and their freedom in research and in the publication of its
results. The University also recognizes its fundamental responsibility to
maintain the conditions under which these freedoms can be exercised.

Students
and faculty have the right to express themselves fully in their private or
civic capacities, on or off campus, and will not be penalized by the University
for their associations or expressions of opinion.

Expression of views in teaching

Education,
by its very nature, is challenging to the student. A good teacher offers the
student not only new facts, but new perspectives, new questions, new modes of
inquiry, and new ways of understanding.In so doing, teachers may expose students to scholarly material or ideas
that they find unpleasant or unwelcome.Columbia promotes no orthodoxy and opposes indoctrination.It is committed to a spirit of investigation
and the belief that learning is advanced through an open exchange of views.

Freedom
of expression in teaching imposes on faculty a correlative obligation to meet
scholarly standards in presenting material and evaluating student work.Teachers as well as students must make every
effort to maintain an atmosphere of civility in the classroom and must show
respect for the right of others to hold opinions differing from their own.

The University’s standards of conduct for faculty in
teaching are set forth in the Code of Academic Freedom and the Faculty Handbook
(Chapter 7 and Appendix E). Students who feel they have been subjected to
behavior that violates these standards have a right to pursue their grievances
within the University through established grievance procedures.

Academic governance

Scholarship
has no ultimate authority and no fixed consensus, only the judgment of the
community of scholars, whose thinking evolves to accommodate new developments,
ideas, and discoveries.The University
conducts periodic reviews of each of its academic programs, seeking the counsel
of outside scholars, to ensure that its teaching and research remain current
and of the highest quality.

Decisions
in academic matters – from an instructor's evaluation of student competence to
a department's evaluation of faculty for hiring and promotion, a school's approval
of courses and curricula, or a university review of departments – will be made,
using the relevant scholarly standards, by the faculty and academic officers of
the University through established customs and procedures of self-governance. Such
decisions are, by University statute, subject to review and approval by the
trustees, whose customary deference to faculty in academic matters has been
essential to the University's success.